Volleyball team in China: Day 9

May 29, 2013

Don’t worry guys there will be a blog today because we made it! We conquered The Great Wall of China and let me tell you it feels amazing! When we first entered the mountains we got glimpses of parts of the wall and as exciting as it looked we knew we were in for a treat. Before actually taking the climb we went through a museum full of artifacts, pictures and history behind the making and existence of The Great Wall. It blows our minds to think of how big the wall is and how much time it must have taken to build the entire thing. We learned that it took many dynasties to complete the wall for defense against invaders, but it wasn’t always successful.

After the museum we started the trek up the wall. There is no amount of stair steppers we could have done to prepare us for it. Some of the steps were steep, some were skinny, and sometimes there weren’t even steps at all it was just a slope straight up. It was so surreal to actually be standing on the Great Wall of China and to have such a beautiful background so we made plenty of stops to take pictures… but let’s be honest the main reason we were stopping was to catch our breath and give our legs a rest. It took about an hour to get to the top of our section of the wall and to think that there were thousands of miles more is mind blowing. It’s definitely an accomplishment to make it to the top because not many people can say they have had the chance to be on such a well known part of history, and also because it was very difficult on the ol’ legs. The way down was a lot faster but also scarier because you don’t have as good of a reading of how steep the steps are so you really have to focus on what you’re doing. Most of the girls ended up just running down the steep slopes to make it easier and less painful. Sitting here writing the blog and thinking about what we got to do today still amazes me because I never thought in a million years we would get such an awesome opportunity and I know the team feels the same.

After conquering the wall we got treated to the biggest pizzas in Beijing, let alone probably the biggest pizza in America too. One pizza had 12 slices and was about as big as the table we were sitting at. Everyone dominated it and our excuse for eating so much was, “hey we just climbed The Great Wall of China we can eat whatever we want!” It was delicious and refreshing but we were all so full we should have been rolled out of the restaurant. Our food babies were definitely out to play today.

We can’t believe tomorrow is our last day to enjoy China, the time has flown by. So far everything we’ve done has been awesome but I think everyone can agree that today tops them all because we climbed the freakin’ GREAT WALL OF CHINA!

Did you miss earlier installments of the team's travelogue? Click below for specific days: